Paper short abstract:

The paper explores whether and how an Irish Ethnology might make a useful contribution to the study of contemporary issues, raising the question of what kind of ethnology would be the most appropriate and useful in this context, and what is needed to achieve this.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores whether and how an Irish Ethnology might make a useful contribution to the study of contemporary issues, raising the question of what kind of ethnology - in terms of research practice and its theoretical foundations - would be the most appropriate and useful in this context, and what is needed to achieve this. A brief sketch of the current position and problems of the field is followed by an examination of three interconnected types of ethnology, which leads to reflections on processes of understanding and interdisciplinarity, and finally to consideration of what ethnologists can and should do, why, and how they might go about it. I shall argue that Ethnology can be seen as a scientific approach to the Local that promotes a comparative understanding of the "own" and the "other" (and hence of encounters and conflicts) both among humans and between human and non-human subjects, viewed as part of a "local household" (oikomene). It is also an applied regional science with a specific local and/or regional focus, relational and system-oriented, with a primarily political and socio-economic purpose; as such it concentrates on communities, and on issues such as migration and hybridization, and uses multi-sited methods. Finally, it can be regarded as an approach to cultural philosophy that brings issues of origin, perspective and the goal (or telos) into view, emphasizing self-reflexive analysis, lived experience, and responsibilities that arise from one's chosen position. In practice, ethnology is a cyclical process of understanding that moves through these different versions in the course of actual research. In conclusion, I consider what such an ethnology might look like in the Irish context.